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Very misleading - its neither
Yeah its a nonlinear realistic/sci-fi shooter with some open gameplay and huge open maps. And a dash of RPG elements.

Its probably the best game from the previous year, best PC action game for sure. Unless you totally hate shooters and cant stand freedom and nonlinearity - its highly recommended.
Despite all the shortcomings its the most enjoyable and immersive game Iv played in some years. 

Im enjoying it. I think the game engine looks and feels a lot like the oblivion engine (better though, the environmental effects are unbelievable), one of it's biggest downsides is the facial animation. literally the animators must have just turned a blind eye to it! all that happens is the bottom jaw flaps up and down like a Thuderbird.

Lunaran - Have you played this game? I couldnt help but notice the bump mapping effects looked very good in places. I would guess that (certainly in places) people have done the overlay stuff by hand. 

One of the better shooters I've played in a long time.

And if you really want to see some sweet visuals, check out the Stalker: Clear Sky trailer here, with all the Direct X 10 eye-candy:

http://www.pcgames.de/aid,640665/Video/Ego-Shooter/Beeindruckendes_Direct-X-10-Video_zu_STALKER_Clear_Sky/

Coming in August... 

Stalker is flawed genius, there are very very few games that come close in terms of atmosphere, Stalker really manages to stick you right in there, sifting through a nuclear wasteland with danger everywhere.

The non linearity and open maps are both a boon and a curse however... I dont think the developers really managed to capture the open ended feel the game should have had. Too many times I cross a border into a new map and there will be the same 3 guys standing in the same place doing the same shit over and over.

I really do have high hopes for clear sky however, they have fixed just about everything that was wrong with Stalker (so they say) and added some great new features with the whole faction war thing. Not to mention it looks fucking fantastic! I'll be picking it up in a heartbeat. 

So I guess the bugfixes will not run on the same hardware as the game plus one has to pay to get them.

I am still waiting for some "make the sp enjoyable and great" patch. Good thing I sold the game when it still was worth some bucks. 

they have fixed just about everything that was wrong with Stalker

how do you know, have you played ClearSky beta or what? 0_o

stalker got patched, sp is enjoyable and spirit is a bitter game-hater :P 

Is it? I remember that the PDA thing drove me nuts, the map, the textstuff/missions/infos. And of course the "surprise spawn right in your face" enemies. 

If even spd calls you a bitter game-hater, you're really beyond remedy.. 

TBH I get a bit frustrated with Stalker too. And the map is about at usefull as a dogs chopped off tail. Navigation - just follow the arrow on the minimap...
And you have to quicksave all of the time too, cause 'realistic' combat = dead in 2 seconds. I'll be creeping through some basement, and - OK - I can see a haze in the room, but it doesnt stay in any specific place, so fair enough, I move forwards, the all of a sudden BOOM!!!! Im dead. So I quickload (already back in the same area) - repeat until I get lucky enough to survive.

The game is pretty addictive though, what it lacks in perfection I think it makes up in immersion. Feels like a real adventure! Took me a while to figure out how the task system works, as a result I completed a few tasks but was unable to collect my reward because the option to timed out.

None the less I can see me playing this one through! Not enough good shooters out these days. I was tempted by Blacksite: Area51, but apparently that sucks.

Roll on Aliens: Colonial Marine! :D 

the pda map and the spawns were fixed in the first patch a ~year ago. patch is a must

I played it on the max difficulty w/o any loading I got as far as 4th map. yeah it was hard, but Im hardcore! 

Imagine a small plastic bag full of them. Puppy ones. And putting said bag in a jacket pocket. And someone else searching something from the pocket and accidentally putting their hand in the bag.
Happened to my cousin. The one who looks a bit like pope's gf. 

And you get zero trade value for them, the only thing they're good for is synthesizing anti-rad serum. Bah! 

Now I remember, that things were fixed but old savegames were rendered useless or something.
Well, I will play it once I am through with Diablo 2 (again...). 

With all others, the savegames continued to work. Some spawning issues still remained in patch 1.0001 or 1.0002. Or at least situations in which respawning enemies spoilt some of the fun. For example, every time I returned to the garbage from Agroprom, there used to be new bandits attacking the hangar. Eventually, I ignored them so the stalkers there would be killed.

Retried the game recently with patch 1.0004 (the two newer only contain fixes for MP), because the majority of mods only support this version. However, all the mod packs I tested kind of sucked in one way or another. Either they featured too many critical modifications, or too few. Too bad. I just play it again without any mods.. 

Seems ok. Sometimes the task system seems buggy, but never commits a real error. 

oh yeah most stalker mods blow
like 'super realism awesome gfx mod!' = broken game balance and economy (yeah gun prices from real world - great idea!) and 1000% bloom intensity for graphics improvements. "fuk dat!" (� sagat) 

Harvey Smith's review of Half-Life
http://www.planetdeusex.com/witchboy/articles/halflifereview.shtml

I guess the other articles are as readworthy. 

excellent stuff there. Game reviews are almost never like this. This is actually more of a pondering post analysis that would not fit as a review/preview, so it's not fair to compare to magazine stuff.. but still. 

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=1517

Im also trying to play this weird thing
~4hrs in and there is no "game" so far. just reading and long walking ;|